Making stitches with insert mesh

- [Instructor] Depending on various factors,sculpting the stitches might not be the right approach.Maybe you don't want to subdivide a mesh toa high enough resolution for it, or maybe you wantto apply different materials to the stitching more easily.For these, and other potential reasons, you might wantto make the stitches out of their own geometry.Let's see how this is done.Okay, you can see from the reference, that the stitcheson the suede quarter are going to be a little bit different.Mostly, this is because we're going to actuallycreate separate geometry for the suede fuzz,so I want the stitches on the suede quarter to stand out.

So let's make every stitch out of its own piece of geometry.To make this simple, we'll make a brushto do most of the work for us.So first, let's make the geometry for one single stitch.I'm going to append a new sub-tool,and we'll just append a cube 3D.I'm going to alt-click on it to make up the active sub-tool.And, let's come down to initialize,because I want to change some things about it.If we hit shift+f, you can see the wire frame,it's actually a pretty complicated, oddly typologized cube.

So, let's just re-initialize this as a single-sided cube,or a single-subdivision cube.So, sending all of these to one, and just click on cube.We might have to hit solo, so we can see just that cube.It was hidden inside the shoe.Okay, good, so we've got a cube withjust a single subdivision on each side.Now, simply what I'm going to do is stretch it out.I'll get my move manipulator out.I'll just drag out a manipulator.I'm gonna hold down shift so it snaps straight out.We'll just click and drag on this outside red circle,and we'll drag that out.

I'll hold shift so it comes out perfectly straight.And let's hit d to turn on dynamic subdivision.So, basically a stitch could be as simple as this.If you wanna make something more complicated,feel free to do that yourself.Okay, going into the draw mode,let's make it all one polygroup.Right now, every side has its own polygroup,and that actually causes a glitch when we create the brush,so I'm just gonna hit control+wto make it all one polygroup.And let's look at this from a top view.

I wanna orient it so that it's going top-to-bottom.This'll make it so that it comes out in the brushin the right orientation.And you might want to hold down shift as your rotatingyour view so it snaps to a perfect top view.Okay, let's make the brush out of it.Go to brush, create insert mesh, and this is asking usif we wanna make a new brushor append it to the existing brush.Let's just make a new one.Okay, so we've got an insert mesh brushwith this single stitch.So now, let's turn off solo mode, and let's go to the piecewe want to start placing this on the quarter here.

We can turn off wire frame, shif+f.And let's see what happens if we start sculpting on here.So, what it does is it just draws out a single versionof this stitch.So, I'm gonna hit control+z to undo that.And let's go into stroke, and let's turn on curve mode.Okay, now let's try it out.Okay, so it's drawing out instances of that stitch.Now let's hit d to turn on dynamic subdivision,so it's going to dynamically subdivide the quarter,and all the stitches.So, that actually looks pretty good.Lemme zoom in really close here, and you can seethat the stitches are, kind-of floatingon top of the surface.

I wanna have them embedded a little bit more down inside,so let's undo that.I'm gonna go to my brush settings, we'll come downto the depth menu, and let's change embed downto something like, actually probably zero or one,something pretty low.And let's try this again.D to turn on dynamic subdivision, we'll just draw this out,and you can see now the stitch is sort-of embeddedright onto the surface.Okay, let's undo this and start making them for real.Now, every time I undo, it undoes the dynamic subdivisionas well, so just turn that back on with d.

Okay, so make this with the other sub-tools visible,it'll actually draw the curve onto other sub-tools.So, for example, if we draw one here,it's actually going to create those, and it's gonna fallor try to snap onto other objects.So, to avoid that, let's turn on transparent mode,so now, it actually won't interact with any objectsthat are transparent.So, dynamic subdivision turned on, and let's start drawingout some stitches.

Then I'm gonna go ahead and let it overshoot a little bit.Oh, it accidentally overshot too far.So, I'm going to actually undo that and try again.Lemme try starting from the top.Okay, d to turn on dynamic subdivision, and you can seewe've got a nice little strip of stitches here.You can adjust the position after you've made it.So, for example, you want it to conform to the shape ofthis a little bit better, you can just grab thisand pull it wherever you want it to go.

Okay, to make another row, I'm just gonna click anywhereon the quarter, just to clear that existing stitch,and let's go ahead and make another one.Just kind-of drawing it down very close to the first onethat I made.And then we can adjust the position of this one as well.Alright, now I'm just going to click on the quarter,and let's make another one.We'll just drag it out from here,and so on, and so forth.So, I'll let you go ahead and keep making the restof these on your own.

As you can see, this method is also pretty fast,and it looks good as well.Now, this is sort of a medium-detail solutionfor making stitches.If you're planning on a really close-up shot,you could make the insert mesh object be made upof smaller fibers.But the way it is now will be good enoughfor medium-distance shots.

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Released

6/8/2017

Digitally sculpting a shoe in ZBrush can sometimes seem a bit daunting. The finished product should be precise, but follow the natural curves of an organic shape. In this course, learn how to leverage the unique tools in ZBrush to digitally sculpt realistic footwear. Ryan Kittleson takes you through the steps of accurately modeling a shoe, explaining how to create the sole, cut the tread pattern, make the upper basic shape, and create the laces. Plus, he shares how to add fine details such as stiches and leather and fabric textures. Upon wrapping up this course, you'll be equipped with the tools and techniques you need to create nearly any kind of footwear—not just the shoe sculpture shown in the course.